You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear with these cheap materials.
make a silk purse of a sow's ear
idiomTo produce something refined, admirable, or valuable from something which is unrefined, unpleasant, or of little or no value.
Origin
first recorded 16th c.Coined by Stephen Gosson in 1579 in the book The Ephemerides of Phialo: Deuided Into Three Bookes p62v
The designer tried to renovate the old, broken shed, but she soon realized she could not make a silk purse of a sow's ear.
Despite the architect's brilliant vision for the crumbling ruins, he eventually admitted that one cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear when the foundation is entirely rotten.
- 01
bend someone's ear
To bore; to talk too long, especially to one particular person.
- 02
cannot make it
Cannot reach satisfactory or expected standards or do something competently; describes someone in a hopeless situation.
- 03
common purse
A shared or community fund.
- 04
cut one's cloth to suit one's purse
To settle for less when money or resources are limited.
- 05
doctors make the worst patients
It is difficult to advise people on subjects that they are experts on.
- 06
ear to the ground
The practice or characteristic of carefully gathering information; a state or mindset of attentiveness.
- 07
ear tunnel
A round piece of jewelry with a hole in the middle, which fits into a stretched earlobe.
- 08
enough to make a cat laugh
Very outlandish or outrageous.